Add a new page

Most humans have seven Health Levels. As you take damage, mark off Health Levels on your character sheet. If you drop to Incapacitated, you lose consciousness. Damage beyond Incapacitated will probably result in death.

Lethal Damage and Bashing Damage are tracked separately. If a character is Incapacitated from Bashing Damage, any additional Bashing Damage taken is Lethal Damage. Lethal and Aggravated Damage stack, while Bashing Damage does not. Thus, one column is provided for Bashing Damage, and one column for Lethal and Aggravated Damage.

Some characters may have more than seven Health Levels. Extra columns are provided to the right of the Bashing and Lethal/Aggravated columns. If your character has an extra Health Level of a certain type, check one of the extra boxes when this extra level is expended.

Injuries reduce a character's effectiveness, resulting in Wound Penalties which subtract dice from most actions.

1) Bruised - That's going to leave a mark, but it's not going to interfere with getting the job done
2) Hurt (-1 die) - You've acquired a wound, and the pain from it will distract you slightly from the task at hand. This is reflected as a -1 dice penalty to most rolls made while you are at this wound level.
3) Injured (-1 die) - You've been genuinely injured, and require some time to recover fully.
4) Wounded (-2 dice) - Being injured to this degree at one time may leave marks that will never fully heal.
5) Mauled (-2 dice) - You've seen far better days. When injured to this degree with lethal damage, you will lose health over time (about one point per day) until you either receive proper medical attention or die.
6) Crippled (-5 dice) - When in this state, it will usually take a supreme act of will to do anything more than lie on the ground
7) Incapacitated (x_X) - You're out cold. This generally means your survival is in the hands of your teammates. Hope you're on good terms with them.

You can ignore Wound Penalties for one turn by spending 1 Temporary Willpower. Some Merits affect the way Health Levels or Wound Penalties are handled.

Wound Penalties do not apply to soak rolls, Virtue checks, or Willpower checks. They apply to any action that involves significant bodily movement, including Strength-based attacks such as Melee but not including firearm and missile attacks if the character takes no other actions.

Recovery

The following table gives the amount of time required to recover one level of Lethal Damage.

Health Level

Recovery Time

Bruised

One day

Hurt

Three days

Injured

One week

Wounded

Two weeks

Mauled

One month

Crippled

Three months

Incapacitated

Five months

The following table gives the amount of time required to recover one level of Bashing Damage.

Health Level

Recovery Time

Bruised

One hour

Hurt

One hour

Injured

One hour

Wounded

One hour

Mauled

Three hours

Crippled

Six hours

Incapacitated

12 hours

A character who suffers 4 levels of Lethal or Aggravated Damage from a single attack (not attack sequence) is likely to suffer permanent injury or maiming.

Lethal or Aggravated Damage of Mauled or beyond will worsen by one level per day if not treated.

A character who takes more Lethal or Aggravated Damage than his health levels from a single attack (not attack sequence) dies instantly.

Mediocre medical care (up to 3 ranks in medicine, limited supplies) can reduce healing times for Bashing or Lethal (but not Aggravated) Damage by one degree. Excellent medical care (4+ ranks, excellent facilities) can reduce it by two degrees.

Excellent medical care costs $50,000 per month.

Even with excellent medical care, it is entirely possible that a character will suffer permanent scarring or even maiming, depending on the nature of the injury.

Thus, a character who is Incapacitated from Lethal Damage and receives excellent medical care will require two months to recover. Such a character will miss a game, unless he chooses to begin the game Crippled.